Proverbs 18:20-21 From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Creative language is a unique human faculty. Speech is part of how we bear the image of God who spoke the world into existence (Gen 1:3). To name and to praise, to converse and to instruct, to bless and to curse, is to be human.
We teach kids to repeat the old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” But the Bible does not affirm this.
While Proverbs does acknowledge that a baseless curse will not stick.
26:2 Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.
Yet the majority of the proverbs emphasize that words are both powerful and sticky.
25:18 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow. 27:3 A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.
25:15 With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.
10:11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
Is your mouth a fountain of blessing and wisdom or a trap and a snare to others?
To assess why you speak the way you do, consider the kind of speech you are drawn to. What do you get excited to talk about? What draws you to certain conversations or media programs or blogs?
10:32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.
18:8 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.
Gossip goes down sweet; we love it. We are bent to speculative slander and find easy pleasure in others’ pain. By contrast the righteous have a taste for healthy words. They know what satisfies and builds up.
16:24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
15:30 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones.
10:23 Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
A diet of junk food cannot sustain a healthy body. We need real nutrients to live well. Likewise, words can nourish or destroy your soul. If you feed your heart on daily media streams of gossip, snarky humor, and political take-downs, you will spout forth the same kind of garbage. Garbage in = garbage out. The most nourishing words available are the words of scripture and gospel testimony.
13:13 Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.
16:20 Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
Do you find yourself delighted to discuss the word of God? Love for God’s word is tied to love for God himself – gained, not first by effort but by encounter – as God’s love is spoken over us by others. In our living witness God’s word becomes embodied testimony, more powerful than text. God’s best word is Christ – not a text, but a person – the Word made flesh! In Jesus, God’s blessing overrides his curse so that those who trust Christ become walking testimonials of his love and mercy.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
At his crucifixion Jesus accepted the death curse which belongs to all humanity, a curse which does not flit away like a sparrow but sticks because the curse is warranted. All the false charges of humanity and even the true curse of God in judgment for human sin could not stick on Jesus, because he did not deserve it. He chose to bear it out of love for us. He chose to bear it, but he did not deserve it.
Mark 10:33-34 …”See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
In Jesus’ resurrection God’s death curse was swallowed up by his own Living Word. Jesus Christ became the final appeal which enables us to stand in the court of God’s mercy. By accepting the Word of Christ spoken over us and in us we are endowed with God’s power to speak life unto others as well.
People should recognize this strange boundary breaking love by how we speak to one another within the body of Christ’s church – and to others outside.
James 3:17-18 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Only as we abide in the Word of Life himself are we empowered, by his Spirit, to speak as he does. Otherwise we slip into hypocrisy.
Matthew 12:33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.
Thankfully, Jesus has taken the initiative to speak God’s empowering love into our lives.
John 15:3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Christ’s Word of Love toward us is not something to be conjured or construed as our own achievement. It must be received as vital gift. And it must be obeyed.
James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
The gospel leads us from the word of life (creation) to the word of death (fall and curse) to the word of redemptive love beyond death (the cross of Christ) to the word of life renewed (resurrection and promised blessing). Death and curse are not the final word with God. And when God speaks, whether curse or blessing, his word sticks.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…
Speaking Truth in Babel 